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The snow came down in heavy flurries, coating the bare tree branches with pillows of white.  The sky above was an abysmal gray, but this didn't dampen the spirits of Kyousei's classmates, much to his distaste.  Bekkah and Fueto were finding every way possible to end up under the mistletoe together, Fueko was scuttling around, madly delivering adorable and cheery Christmas cards to her many friends, and Beck, forced inside due to the snow inhabiting his usual perch, was cuddling with Saori by the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate together and chatting brightly.
Kyousei observed this all in passing (as he did observe everything very clearly) on his way to his room.  None of his friends – as they chose to call themselves – attempted to make any type of well-wishings, thankfully.  He wasn't one to partake in holiday merriment.  However, as he expected, he was not able to dodge the red-and-green bullet that entire night as he ran into his twin brother in the hall, armed with a colorfully wrapped box.
"Hey, brother!" Koushou exclaimed excitedly.  Kyousei frowned.  Koushou's smile remained unperturbed, used to this kind of response.  "Merry Christmas!"  He thrust the box out in front of him.  It was rectangular, but thin height-wise, almost like a DVD case.
"No thanks," Kyousei retorted, shouldering past his brother.  He could tell Koushou expected this type of response as he followed his older twin down the hall at close proximity.
"It's Christmas, Kyousei," Koushou insisted, tapping his shoulder with the box.  "Lighten up a bit."
Kyousei halted suddenly, having had it up to here with all the lovey-dovey, goofy, fluffy, idiotic, happy feelings slapping him in the face the past few days.  He turned on his heel towards his brother, his face pulled into one of disdain.  "This.  Holiday," he began with venom plainly in his tone, "is a foolish celebration of a fictional event that supposedly did not even take place in this month, and has since been commercialized into a gift-giving period where people rack up their electric bills draping colored lights on their houses, kiss under poisonous berries, go riding around in one-horse open sleighs, and stay up late in anticipation of a red-suited old man to break into their house via their chimney and leave presents under a pine tree they cut down from some forest.  Anyone who partakes in this childish nonsense is a fool, and I, having some shred of dignity, refuse to join in."
Kyousei turned swiftly away and stormed back down the hall, leaving his brother to stare at him with wide, watery eyes.

The snow blotted out the campus lights outside, making the inside of Kyousei's room even darker than usual as he lay restless on his bed, staring unseeingly at the ceiling fan making its sluggish rounds again and again.  The air in his room was colder than usual, even taking the snow storm into consideration.  Kyousei, of course, thought nothing of it, other than some fault of the air conditioning repairman.
Suddenly, the room was bathed in a golden light.  Kyousei sat up immediately, not having heard the door open.  Or the window, for that matter.  Saori was standing at the foot of his bed, hands tucked behind her back, hair and skirts wavering slightly in some unseen wind.
"What the hell are you doing in here, Saori?" Kyousei growled, raising a hand to block out the light coming from behind her… or, from her….
The apparition of Saori just smiled.  "You're not really in a Christmas mood, are you, Kyousei?" she scolded lightly.  "Don't you know all your friends are out in the students' lounge having a good time?  They'd enjoy your company."
"They'd enjoy my company as much as I'd enjoy theirs.  Which is not much.  Or at all," Kyousei spat.  "Are you dead, Saori, and now your ghost is gonna haunt me?"
The ghostly figure chuckled.  "No, Kyousei, I'm alive and well in the students' lounge, though I'm thankful for your concern."  Kyousei grunted in denial.  Saori lifted one hand, holding three fingers up.  "Besides me, you'll be visited by three more ghosts like me. We're just hoping it'll help lift your spirits.  Pun not intended," she added with a regretful smile.
"I don't need my spirits lifted, I just want this day to be over," Kyousei grumbled, throwing his pillow over his head and collapsing back onto his bed.  The light obediently retreated from his room and Kyousei closed his eyes, hopeful that he'd fall asleep swiftly and awaken to a beautiful December the 26th, when hopefully everyone had spent their festive energy.
Instead, his eyelids flew open to another glint of gold light.  He sat up groggily, having only dozed for about an hour.  "Listen, ghost-whoever, I don't-"  His words caught in his throat when he put his glasses on and saw the ghost that was perched daintily on the foot of his bed.  Her light brown hair was done up in a high ponytail and she had on an old-timey schoolgirl dress as she had in the old days, ones her parents always insisted she wear.  She couldn't have been older than fifteen; around the age she had died at.
"Evangeline," he murmured in disbelief, his eyes widening.  "Is it really-"
"No," she interrupted with a forced bright tone.  "I'm just here for a few minutes, to take you back to the past and remind you how Christmas used to be like for you."
He drew his lips thin.  "I remember well enough," he said darkly.  "I don't need… I don't want to go back, Evangeline," he whispered, almost desperately.  She, however, stood, walked over to him, and took his hand.  He felt the oddest sensation of lifting, his whole body feeling warm as if he were sitting directly in the sun.  When it was over he turned behind him and saw himself, sleeping not-so-peacefully with his glasses still on his nightstand.  Before this image could sink in, he left that odd lifting sensation and watched his body, bed, and floor drop away from beneath him.
Once they had passed through the ceiling as easily as if it were air, Kyousei found himself floating dizzyingly in a bright winter morning over a painfully familiar yard.  "Oh God," Kyousei stammered, pulling his hand from Evangeline's.  "I'm not.  Going over there."
Patiently, Evangeline grabbed hold of his hand with both of hers and pulled him forward.  The street he'd "grown up" on passed by underneath him as they zoomed in towards the abhorred mansion, phasing through the wall as they had the ceiling.  Kyousei instantly recognized the room as Evangeline's playroom, newly opened boxes and the scarred remnants of wrapping paper scattered every which way.  Seated in the middle of all this was a slightly younger Evangeline, pink, fluffy nightgown hanging off her petite body, running a train down a length of wooden track to a station manned by a younger Koushou.  And, kneeling beside him, was a young Kyousei, a childishly innocent smile adorning his rounded face, yet still unable to mask the grim, sunken look in his eyes.  It didn't help that these eyes kept darting to the double doors in constant apprehension, certain her parents would walk in, demanding more chores of them and hurting them again.
"Koushou, my tire's flat!" the younger Evangeline announced urgently, scuttling along to keep up with the train as she heaved it down the track.  The ghostly equivalence of Evangeline chuckled affectionately beside Kyousei.
"Oh no!" Koushou yelped with equal amount of exigency.  "You gotta get it to the shop quick!"
"Yeah, we gotta get these presents to Santa's workshop fast so he can deliver them!" Kyousei declared, his gaze darting wearily to the doors as he spoke.
"At this age I still believed in Santa," the older Evangeline reflected.  "I knew you two didn't, but you played along for my sake.  I'm grateful for that, Kyousei."
Kyousei suddenly felt actual tears pushing on the corners of his eyes.  He rubbed them away furiously, glaring at the floor in defiance.  From the corner of his eye he could see the children all jump up.  The unmistakable click of high heels was headed towards the playroom.  Kyousei and Koushou had tried to busy themselves by picking up the wrapping paper, but it couldn't fool the misses as she crashed through the doors.
"Evangeline!" she yelled sharply.  "You aren't playing with these… boys, are you?"  It was a rhetorical question, considering they weren't allowed in the playroom at all, and therefore wouldn't be cleaning it in the first place.
"No mother," Evangeline replied under her breath, but the damage was done.  The misses clattered over to the two boys, arms laden with florescent giftwrap.  They dropped it in order to free their hands and thus protect their heads, but her fist came down on them before they could construct a proper shield.
"How many times must I tell you two NOT to talk to my daughter?!" she screeched, her hand slapping them upside their heads harshly.   "Are you both idiots?  It's no wonder no one wanted to take care of you!  You're lucky I put up with your constant disobedience or you'd be out in the snow right now!"
The older Evangeline obstructed her view as her late mother continued on, dragging the twins out by their wrists to set them to more labor.  "Charming woman," Evangeline commented hoarsely, moving to kneel by her crying younger self.  Her hands hovered over the younger girl's shoulders, never truly touching.
"What's the point of bringing me here, Evangeline?" Kyousei asked, his voice suspiciously raw.  "I… didn't have to see that.  To be honest, the nightmares were just ending."
She looked up at him sadly.  "I know what you've become now," she said sternly, and for one terrible, fearful moment, Kyousei could see and hear her mother in the disapproving state Evangeline was in.  "You push people away.  You won't let anyone in.  You won't let anyone help, even your own brother."  She paused to look wearily at the double doors, one still ajar.  "He went through the same as you did, but he did something you couldn't – he took it all and got stronger."
"Stronger?" Kyousei echoed snidely.  The tone surprised Evangeline; it was a tone he'd never taken with her before.  He looked away from her hurt eyes.  "He's… he's weak.  He lets others' emotions get to him."
"That's not weakness, Kyou," she snapped gently, her brow furrowing.  Kyousei flinched at the pet name.  "He can commiserate.  He accepted his feelings once this all was said and done, and he took it, turned it around, and is happy.  Are you happy?"  She didn't pause long enough for him to answer.  "No.  I can tell you're horribly miserable."
"But I'm happy being miserable," he retorted numbly, looking away still.  "I…"
"You won't accept this," she accused plainly.  "You repressed this all, and because of it it's weighing you down.  You forgot all this, and you forgot me-"
"I never forgot you!" Kyousei interjected, his shoulders tensing, fists clenched.
"-and you forgot how to love," she finished primly.  Kyousei bristled before her but made no move to refute her.  "You can't love anyone as you once loved me and Koushou.  You push everyone aside because you're afraid that if you open up to someone, you'll feel everything you've bottled up all these years come at you all at once.  You're too weak to face it all again, so you just plan to keep it all repressed."  Again, Kyousei remained silent, glowering helplessly at her.  Little Evangeline had since stood up and departed from the room, off to sulk in her bed most likely.  Evangeline's ghost stood resolutely, intimidating even despite the height difference.  Perhaps it was how much of her mother Kyousei was seeing in her.
"Look at your brother.  You just brushed him aside earlier this night, when all he wanted was to give you a gift."
"In observation of a pointless holiday, and it probably was a crappy gift anyway," Kyousei shot back icily.
"But if you'd let yourself go a little, it wouldn't be a pointless holiday, and maybe it wouldn't be a crappy gift, and maybe you'd be happy every now and again."  She unknowingly put her hands high on her hips in the same fashion her mother always did.  "Your friend Saori."
"What about her?" Kyousei asked impatiently, pacing around the old play room littered with tin soldiers and Barbie dolls.
"She loved you, truly, and you rejected her because you didn't want to open your heart."  She arched an eyebrow.
Kyousei made a batting-away gesture with his hands.  "But she found Beck, and she's infinitely happier with him then she would've been with me."
"You entertained the thought of dating her, then?" Evangeline asked simply.  "But you came to the worst possible scenario and, like all other good things in your life, you just let it die.  Why can't you just assume that good things can happen to you?"
"Because they never have!" Kyousei exploded, stamping his foot hard against the floor.  The resulting sound was silence, as Kyousei wasn't really there.
Evangeline's heart-shaped face softened to a look of pity that Kyousei had loved as a child, but now felt further enraged by.  "Oh, Kyousei.  They have, you just don't see it.  But… that's not my department…"  She began to fade out of view, the room around him darkening.
Kyousei realized what was going on with wide-eyed panic, willing his feet to run him towards her.  This only seemed to draw farther away from her, so he outstretched his hand towards her.  "Evangeline, don't leave me!" he cried out.  "Not again!  Please, Evangeline!"
Then the world blinked out of existence.

Kyousei shot up in bed, cold sweat clutching his undershirt to his body.  The room was still dark, the shadows of snowflakes drifting down past his window.  Kyousei raised one hand to his head only to find it shaking.  He clenched his fist and angrily pounded it against the mattress.
"Watch it, that is school property, young man," came a chipper voice.  Kyousei's mood soured even more when he saw Bekkah perched happily on his desk, legs crossed over his homework.  Of course, she wasn't disturbing the pieces of paper; she had the same unearthly glow about her that Saori and Evangeline had had.
"Don't tell me you're the second ghost?" Kyousei grumbled.  "I'm really starting to wish you all were really dead."  The comment stuck in his throat when he thought of Evangeline, and what he would give if at least she were alive.
"Fine, I won't," she replied with a snarky smile, pantomiming a zipping motion over her lips.  "I'm glad you're so direct, since we're kinda crunched on time as it is."
Kyousei looked at his digital watch but the screen was blank.  The analogue clock on his wall was stuck at midnight, the seconds hand not ticking.  Kyousei sighed angrily.  "Let's just get this over with so I can get back to bed," Kyousei growled.  Bekkah gave him two thumbs up.
"That's a nice look for you by the way," she commented as she trotted over to his bedside.  "You know how much I love men in tank tops."
"Can it, you're dating Fueto," Kyousei accused.  She smiled and shrugged, taking his hand.  Again there was that bizarre feeling of weightlessness as Kyousei's conscious was pulled from his living body, but thankfully this time they did not fly up through the ceiling, instead passed through the door out to the hallway.
Instead of the hallway, though, they were in the student lounge, where all his so-called friends were gathered together, scattered amongst the furniture arranged around the fireplace that was still crackling.  There were bits of garish wrapping paper littering the rug in the middle, the gift exchange having been finished.  On the couch directly across from the fire Beck sat comfortably with his arm around Saori's shoulders.  To their left, Fueko cradled a new case for her flute.  On the armchair by her, Koushou sat tidily, Kyousei's present still held in his hands.  Across from him on the far wall, Fueto sprawled over a couch, Bekkah tucked neatly between him and the couch bed, her head resting on his chest.
"Oh, aren't I just precious," the ghostly Bekkah gushed, clambering to sit on the couch back between Saori and Fueko.
"Now what?" Kyousei asked, unimpressed.  "They're just sitting around doing nothing."
"Not quite," Bekkah reprimanded.  "We're enjoying each other's company.  Something you can't seem to do."
"Kyousei didn't want his present, I assume?" Fueko asked hesitantly.
Koushou looked up sadly.  "No… normally he'll take it just to get me off his back, but today he just exploded."
"You mean he got angry at you?" Saori asked, her voice placid.
"There's a shock," Bekkah quipped.
"Yeah, well, it's true," Bekkah's ghost explained to Kyousei, whose arms were folded in annoyance.  "You're a total douche to Koushou all the time."
"No, I mean like, really angry," Koushou explicated, lacing his fingers over the present nervously.  "I haven't seen him so angry in a while.  I don't know what's gotten into him…"
"I guess he's just not a Christmas person," Saori offered.
"A regular ole scrooge," Beck put in.  "Everyone's gotta be happy on Christmas!  Anyone who ain't has got somethin' seriously wrong with 'em."
"Yeah, well, he's a real piece of work," Fueko sighed.  "He just doesn't seem to be happy over normal stuff."
"It's not really his fault," Koushou countered, fidgeting uncomfortably.  He seemed ready to say more, but swallowed it back.  The others made soft noises of agreement.
"But you went through the same stuff he did and you turned out alright," Fueto said, gesturing towards Koushou.  "He could do to take a page outta your book."
Koushou smiled regretfully.  "Well, just 'cause me and him are identical twins doesn't mean we're completely the same.  He just took things harder than I did and shut down."
"Figuratively," Bekkah suggested with a little smile.  A few others chuckled.
"Still…" Fueko ventured, putting one finger delicately on her chin, "I feel bad that he's having a crummy Christmas.  I guess I just feel a little guilty that we're out here together having a nice time, and he's in his room all alone."
"It's not like he's holing himself up to cry," Fueto countered.  "He likes being by himself.  It'd be a nicer gesture to just leave him alone."
Fueko made a small noise of defeat.   Kyousei was a little surprised at all this; he was never nice to them, why would they bother to consider his feelings?
"If something's eating Kyousei, he'll come around eventually," Fueko finally said to Koushou, putting one hand on his arm.  Koushou smiled at her gratefully, a weary look tingeing his features.  "Then maybe you could give him the gift."
"I suppose," Koushou muttered.  "I just figured… eventually he'd stop acting like this.  They way I get through the day is, when I wake up, I'm thankful that it's in my own bed in my own dorm, safe here at school, not back in that dreadful house."  He sighed, the eternal smile of his gone from his face.  "It hurts me to see him hurting."
"Yer a good brother fer it," Beck insisted.  Suddenly everyone was unnaturally still.  Even the dancing flames had halted in mid-motion.  Kyousei turned to the apparition of Bekkah, glaring expectantly at him.
"Notice anything?" she asked, looking up at him over her visor.
"That you guys are all idiots who reward cold indifference with acceptance and kindness," he spat, not meeting her gaze.
Bekkah crossed her arms huffily.  "I noticed two wonderful points, and I don't find myself to be very perceptive.  One," she said, jabbing her index finger to the ceiling, "we still care about you, even if you are an ass, because we can all relate to you on one plane or another.  We're just a scraggle of misfits that came together like a magnet because we can commiserate, and that transgressed into friendship.  Second," she said, cutting off whatever excuses he was ready to throw back at her, "you could learn a thing or two from Koushou.  What's your first thought when you get up in the morning?"
Kyousei glowered at the frozen tongues of fire nestled in the mantle.  He heard Bekkah tapping her foot on the floor.  "You're really brazen for some kind of omnipotent ghostly guide," he accused.
"I'm still just me, I'm just a fragment of myself right now," Bekkah said pedantically, rolling her eyes.  "Anyway, you're getting me off topic.  You don't have the right attitude in life, and that's why you think it's all pointless.  Koushou treats every day like a gift.  You treat everyday like a subjection to torture.  Are you being tortured, Kyousei?  Do you see Evangeline's mom here, ordering you around?"  She cast a hand accusingly at the scene before them.  "The worst shit you have to deal with is pop quizzes in History class.  You never stop and appreciate the fact that you aren't in a position that you have to be afraid of a beating or manual labor!  But instead of thinking like that, of being grateful of that, you act like everything in the world is pointless and devoid of all joy!"  Bekkah took a few deep, shuttering breaths, her face flushed in anger.
"I'm not gonna sell you the children-starving-in-Africa schpeal, but I can assure you, you're way better off now than you used to be.  You just refuse to accept it."  Bekkah and Kyousei stared each other down, Bekkah refusing to even blink.
"You're wasting your time, Bekkah," Kyousei muttered, his clenched fists trembling.  "Just go back to where ever you came from and leave me be."
"It seems I am wasting my time," she mumbled.  "Evangeline had a better chance at convincing you, but her time was limited.  As is mine," Bekkah added, looking down at her bare wrist as though at a wristwatch as she began to fade, just as Evangeline had.  The student lounge was fading to black around him.  "I only hope this next ghost has a little better chance than me…"  Then, as it had before, the world disappeared.

Kyousei did not bolt up this time.  He felt the weight return to his body, an indolent sensation in his limbs as though they had been asleep, but even still he kept his eyes squeezed shut, hoping this would deter the next ghost.
"Oh, please," came an exasperated voice.  "Get your lazy ass up."
Kyousei's eyes snapped open in surprise.  He hadn't known who to expect for this last ghost, but if he had to guess, he wouldn't have thought of her.
Emiko stood in a halo of ethereal light, hands on her hips irately.  She had on her old performing outfit, but she had aged slightly since she had transferred out of Blaire West.  Her head was tilted, eyes lidded slightly in impatience.  "C'mon.  I really don't want to be here."
"Feeling's mutual," Kyousei replied blandly.  "So, following the pattern, I assume I'm going into the future?"
Emiko nodded.  "At least you're not a total idiot," she allotted.  "Now c'mon, I wanna get back to sleep too."  She grabbed his wrist roughly, nails digging into his skin.  He didn't complain though as he was totally out of patience by then.  The now familiar sensation of floating ended and they stepped through a wall and into a bright, spacious living room of sorts.
Snow still drifted outside the window but Kyousei knew it was Christmas, as evident by the modest-sized Christmas tree with a decent amount of ornaments.  Presents were tucked underneath the low hanging boughs of the pine tree, many of them medium-sized boxes.  Kyousei, finding no one to observe, paced over to the tree and knelt down, flipping one tag over to read the dedication.  'Merry X-Mas David & Jessica' it read, with a heart at the corner before 'Aunt Fueko'.
"You're kidding me-" Kyousei began to say before two young children tore into the room.  A boy and a girl, most likely far into their second year, clad in formal attire  They both had curly brown hair, the boy's darker and wavier than that of whom Kyousei assumed to be the boy's sister.
"David!  Jessica!" came a man's voice.  The man who had spoken walked into the room after them, wearing a holiday sweater and slacks.  He had a Santa hat perched crookedly over his sandy hair.  Though he had aged considerably, Kyousei recognized the man as an adult Fueto.  "Don't get too riled up in your nice clothes."
"Davey started it!" Jessica whined, pointing a blunt finger at her brother.  "He pulled my hair again!"
"David, do NOT pull your sister's hair!" came a woman's voice, and an older version of Bekkah walked into the room, visor replaced by a stylishly thin set of glasses.  "Or else you have to sleep out in the cold, cold snow."  David crossed his arms stuffily, looking away from his sister.  "Say you're sorry," Bekkah instructed, kneeling next to her son.
The boy glowered at his sister.  "Sorry," he said shortly, then added under his breath, "Tattletale."
The doorbell rang, interrupting any further argument.  "You two behave please, okay?" Fueto asked, kissing them both on the tops of their heads.
"Okay," they chorused indifferently, scuttling over to the door behind their parents.
"Beck!" came Bekkah's delighted squeal.  She threw her arms around her half-brother, suspending herself off the ground.
"Hey, watch it!" he laughed.  When Kyousei got a good view of him, he realized how strikingly he resembled his father by the few chances he'd gotten to see the man, save for the hair color and generous stubble adorning his chin.  Behind him came Saori, now a gorgeous young woman with curly hair cropped at her jaw.  On her hip she held a baby, probably a year old.  His skin was a little lighter than Saori's, but his hair was a medium brown and had the beginnings of the hair part on his forehead and freckles dotting his cheeks that Beck had.  Kyousei felt the faintest pang of loss.
Behind them came Fueko, also grown, on the arm of some blonde man Kyousei could not identify.  They probably had never met.  Gouto was next, struggling with a large box that Fueto rushed over to help him relocate to the tree. The whole mass of people congregated in the entryway, hugging and kissing and babbling in a sickeningly Hallmark-esque scene.  The two kids attacked Beck's legs, squeaking "Uncle Beck!  Up, up, up!" to which he picked them up one at a time, throwing them high into the air much to Bekkah's discontent.
Emiko sighed, annoyed, reminding Kyousei that she was there at all.  "What's here that's gonna make me feel the warm, fuzzy feeling of Christmas?" he asked snidely.  She side-glanced at him and shrugged.  "You guys suck at being ghosts," Kyousei indicted.
The two unearthly spectators followed the group of people down an entryway to another part of the house, opening up into a snug dining room with folding chairs and armchairs dragged up to a small dining table to accommodate the guests.  A child's play table was set beside the dining table with rounded yellow chairs and plastic plates embellished with cartoon characters.
"Andy called and said he can't make it," Bekkah informed those assembled, which drew a groan from them.
"Maybe next year," Fueko said hopefully.  "I was looking forward to meeting him and Lizzy."
"Yeah, I hope you guys do get to meet them, they're lovely, and David and Jessica just love playing with Elaine."
The pointless prattle continued for what felt like forever as the silverware was placed, bowls and platters were brought out from the kitchen, and gifts of food and presents were put in their correct places.  The doorbell rang again, three sharp taps.  "No way," Kyousei muttered in disbelief.
Sure enough, Fueto opened the door to reveal Koushou, now looking much older and more confident in the way he held himself.  He had contacts on, or had at least disposed of his glasses in some way, and had much shorter hair, the same dark green save for the patch of lighter green bangs that were still there.  Bekkah danced over and pecked him on the cheek, ushering him to the dining room with the rest of the gang.
The man Fueko had arrived with cleared his throat.  "Anyone have really exciting news to share?" he asked loudly, looking expectantly at Fueko from the corner of his eye.  Her head originally propped up in her hands, she then sprang to life and raised her left hand, then held it out for everyone to see the ring.  An excited jabber broke out at the table mixed with applause.  Everyone reached or leaned over and offered their congratulations, all the while Fueko beaming radiantly.  Kyousei couldn't say his heart wasn't touched at least a prick by the utter excitement radiating from the scene, but he quashed it immediately.
"Dangit, I thought I was the only one with exciting news," Bekkah complained good-naturedly.
"What's your exciting news, dear?" Fueto asked.  "Bear in mind, managing not to burn the turkey doesn't count."  He chuckled as Bekkah smacked him in the shoulder.
"Well gee, now I don't think you deserve the exciting news, but you'll find out eventually so here," she said decidedly, producing a small, thin box from her coat pocket.  Fueto looked at it in confusion, popping the top off and setting it down on the table.  His eyes widened and he began to sputter.
"You're pregnant again?" he asked, grinning in bewilderment.  Another babble of enthusiasm rose around the table as another round of congratulations circulated.  Fueto got up and hugged Bekkah tightly, and would have swung her around if not for the table in the way.
"Sorry, I ain't got nothin' to add," Beck apologized, shrugging.  " 'sides that it's Eli's first Christmas.  How ye managin', trooper?" he asked, turning to look at his son who was seated with David and Jessica at the kid's table.  Eli had managed to shampoo mashed potatoes into his hair.
"Davey dared him to!" Jessica declared, earning her a menacing glare from David.  Everyone laughed as Saori did her best to wipe the potatoes from her son's head with a napkin.  Kyousei felt the corner of his lip actually tug up a little.  He'd never seen a meal quite like this one – was this standard for Christmas?
Once each dish had been passed all the way around the table and all plates were full, Fueto called for everyone to join hands.  They all bowed their heads and closed their eyes respectfully as he said grace, thanking God for the food and family assembled at their table that Christmas.  They broke apart, digging into their food and talking to each other merrily.  Koushou informed Fueko that he and some girl named Adrienne were doing quite well, Bekkah and Saori excitedly discussed baby names, Beck and Fueto talked about sports, specifically college football, Gouto and Fueko's fiancé chatted lightly about computers.
"So, might I ask where I am at this time?" Kyousei asked Emiko levelly.
She snapped back to reality, seeming to have been dozing lightly on her feet.  "Oh, right.  Sure, one second."  She pulled Kyousei along behind her, phasing through the wall and into a dark apartment.  Snow was falling heavily outside the large sliding glass door.  The room was large and furnished heavily, the only light coming from a large plasma screen TV mounted on the wall before the largest of the couches.  A man similar to the older Koushou in appearance was seated on said couch wielding a TV remote, clicking disinterestedly through the channels.  As he settled on each channel, he flipped the second it began with their well wishings of Christmas, playing of Christmas carols or sampling being Christmas-y… which, apparently, was every channel.
"Isn't there anything decent to watch?" the older Kyousei grumbled, head propped up in his free hand.  The younger Kyousei padded around the apartment languorously, observing its organization with slight distaste.  He obviously was going to have a lot of time on his hands by the immaculate state of things.  There were no picture frames, no wreaths, no strings of lights, no tree, and no presents to be seen.  It was a bleak contrast to the jolly atmosphere he had just left.
"Quite a future you got here," Emiko commented dryly.  Young Kyousei saw her sitting comfortably on the couch by his future self.  "The holiday where pretty much everyone is surrounded by family and friends, but you're here in the dark watching television.  Well," she sniffed, "not really WATCHING it, even."
"Then I guess that's it then?" he said with a casual shrug.  "Nothing changes for me."
"Not quite," Emiko said, observing the flipping channels as though she actually cared.  "This is one interpretation.  Your current one.  As I'm sure you've guessed, we aren't all-knowing figures of wisdom.  What we're showing you is the course of your life as it was and would be starting the exact moment Saori's apparition first visited you.  This," she said, gesturing to the disgruntled man beside her, "could easily be you if you keep things going the way they were.  But, if you were to heed all of our advice and change your ways a little bit, this could be what you saw before.  Sitting at a table with your friends and having a grand old time.  Not that it really matters to me, I didn't exactly sign up to be a ghostly ambassador and no one's expecting much from me out of this."
Kyousei stood silently, looking out the window at the city below and genuflecting.  Evangeline had claimed he'd forgotten how to love, or at least refused to.  She was right.  He didn't want to let anyone in, because other people only brought more hurt.  But… he didn't even let his friends in, and they still were concerned for him.  And the boundless love he felt in Fueto and Bekkah's dining room…  there wasn't a chance he could be in on that someday?  He hated to admit it, even to himself, but the prospect of sitting alone in an apartment seemed very unappealing compared to a festive dinner with friends.  Real, genuine friends.
"I'm tired," Kyousei finally said.  "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to go back."
"Whatever," Emiko sighed, and she began to fade.  The dim apartment became even dimmer, the lights fading away into blackness.

When Kyousei opened his eyes again knew with some degree of relief that he would not be greeted with any companion bathed in light.  He sat up, his limbs feeling heavy as they did when he returned to his body.  But could he expect to believe that was not all a dream?  The second he had awoken he was ready to pass it off as just such, but a slight fear gripped at his heart all the same.
On some impulse Kyousei got up and moved to his door, maybe to see if he'd pass through it.  His fingers touched the cold metal of the doorknob, though, and he opened the door.
"Kyousei!"  Kyousei looked into the identical eyes of his twin brother.  Koushou was still holding the present.  He observed this and held his hand out grudgingly.  Koushou looked confused.
"It's still Christmas, isn't it?" Kyousei asked inattentively.
Koushou smiled and eagerly laid the box in his brother's hand.  "Actually, it's technically the 26th now, but that doesn't matter."  Koushou stood expectantly before his brother, and Kyousei took this as a hint to open the gift.  It seemed to be an empty picture frame with a black rectangle in the center.  Kyousei remembered the lack of pictures in his future apartment.  Had he already begun to change things without meaning to?
"It's digital," Koushou informed him, pointing at a little button on the side.  Kyousei slid it to "on" with his thumb, and immediately the screen was alight with a faint blue glow.  A picture of Kyousei and Koushou, taken at the very beginning of their first year at Blaire West, appeared on the screen with a diamond-pattern transition.  Their individual yearbook photos appeared one before the other, followed by more of them seated with the gang at their lunch table.  There were shots of Saori, Bekkah, Fueto and Fueko, Emiko, even Sakyu, Ryuuza and Isabel.  Kyousei's eyes widened when, in a page-turn transition, there appeared a photo of Evangeline, sitting tall in a fluffy Victorian dress in an imitation old-style photograph, albeit in color.  The pixilated Evangeline did something he was certain she wasn't meant to – she turned her head towards Kyousei and smiled, waving slightly before a checkerboard pattern swept her away and replaced her with a picture of Kyousei and Koushou from the dance.
Kyousei was unsure what to say to his anxiously awaiting brother.  He looked at him over the picture frame that had begun to repeat pictures.  "Thank you," he stated simply.
Koushou, however, was stunned at even this much of a response.  "You're welcome, Kyousei," he replied, surprised but happy.  "Well… I'd better be getting to bed.  I have a feeling we're getting a pop quiz in History today."  Kyousei started when he recalled the ghostly Bekkah mentioning that earlier that night, in a dream or otherwise.  "Night, Kyousei!"
"Night, Koushou," he replied softly, staring down at the picture frame again, debating.  "Koushou."
"Yeah?"  His brother stopped, halfway down the hall, and turned to him.
Kyousei stared at him for a long moment, his jaw tensed.  "Merry Christmas," he finally managed, then turned back into his room.

As the evening wore on, the doorbell rang once again.  "That's probably Shisou, right?" Bekkah asked Saori.
"Most likely," Saori replied, joining Bekkah on her way to answer the door.  Sure enough, it was Shisou, bearing many gift bags stuffed liberally with crackling tissue paper.
"Merry Christmas, sis," she said, greeting Saori with a one armed hug, letting Bekkah take the bags to the Christmas tree.  "I brought all my gifts for everyone to save on shipping."  A chorus from the table assured her that pretty much everyone had done the same.  As Bekkah returned to shut the door, Shisou stopped her.  "I picked up a straggler along the way."
Hesitant footsteps approached the doorway, and Kyousei awkwardly let himself in.
"Kyousei!" Bekkah yelled, closing the distance between them quickly and gathering him in a tight hug.  "It's been so long!  How are you?"
"Been doing fine," he replied.  Others began to filter over from the dining room, headed by Koushou who went to greet his twin brother.  They all began chattering at once, smiling and patting him on the shoulder.  David even squeezed through the adults' legs and waddled over to stand before Kyousei, looking up in confusion at the stranger.  Then, Kyousei did something her rarely did.
He smiled.

Description
The snow came down in heavy flurries, coating the bare tree branches with pillows of white.  The sky above was an abysmal gray, but this didn't dampen the spirits of Kyousei's classmates, much to his distaste.  Bekkah and Fueto were finding every way possible to end up under the mistletoe together, Fueko was scuttling around, madly delivering adorable and cheery Christmas cards to her many friends, and Beck, forced inside due to the snow inhabiting his usual perch, was cuddling with Saori by the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate together and chatting brightly.
Kyousei observed this all in passing (as he did observe everything very clearly) on his way to his room.  None of his friends – as they chose to call themselves – attempted to make any type of well-wishings, thankfully.  He wasn't one to partake in holiday merriment.  However, as he expected, he was not able to dodge the red-and-green bullet that entire night as he ran into his twin brother in the hall, armed with a colorfully wrapped box.
"Hey, brother!" Koushou exclaimed excitedly.  Kyousei frowned.  Koushou's smile remained unperturbed, used to this kind of response.  "Merry Christmas!"  He thrust the box out in front of him.  It was rectangular, but thin height-wise, almost like a DVD case.
"No thanks," Kyousei retorted, shouldering past his brother.  He could tell Koushou expected this type of response as he followed his older twin down the hall at close proximity.
"It's Christmas, Kyousei," Koushou insisted, tapping his shoulder with the box.  "Lighten up a bit."
Kyousei halted suddenly, having had it up to here with all the lovey-dovey, goofy, fluffy, idiotic, happy feelings slapping him in the face the past few days.  He turned on his heel towards his brother, his face pulled into one of disdain.  "This.  Holiday," he began with venom plainly in his tone, "is a foolish celebration of a fictional event that supposedly did not even take place in this month, and has since been commercialized into a gift-giving period where people rack up their electric bills draping colored lights on their houses, kiss under poisonous berries, go riding around in one-horse open sleighs, and stay up late in anticipation of a red-suited old man to break into their house via their chimney and leave presents under a pine tree they cut down from some forest.  Anyone who partakes in this childish nonsense is a fool, and I, having some shred of dignity, refuse to join in."
Kyousei turned swiftly away and stormed back down the hall, leaving his brother to stare at him with wide, watery eyes.

The snow blotted out the campus lights outside, making the inside of Kyousei's room even darker than usual as he lay restless on his bed, staring unseeingly at the ceiling fan making its sluggish rounds again and again.  The air in his room was colder than usual, even taking the snow storm into consideration.  Kyousei, of course, thought nothing of it, other than some fault of the air conditioning repairman.
Suddenly, the room was bathed in a golden light.  Kyousei sat up immediately, not having heard the door open.  Or the window, for that matter.  Saori was standing at the foot of his bed, hands tucked behind her back, hair and skirts wavering slightly in some unseen wind.
"What the hell are you doing in here, Saori?" Kyousei growled, raising a hand to block out the light coming from behind her… or, from her….
The apparition of Saori just smiled.  "You're not really in a Christmas mood, are you, Kyousei?" she scolded lightly.  "Don't you know all your friends are out in the students' lounge having a good time?  They'd enjoy your company."
"They'd enjoy my company as much as I'd enjoy theirs.  Which is not much.  Or at all," Kyousei spat.  "Are you dead, Saori, and now your ghost is gonna haunt me?"
The ghostly figure chuckled.  "No, Kyousei, I'm alive and well in the students' lounge, though I'm thankful for your concern."  Kyousei grunted in denial.  Saori lifted one hand, holding three fingers up.  "Besides me, you'll be visited by three more ghosts like me. We're just hoping it'll help lift your spirits.  Pun not intended," she added with a regretful smile.
"I don't need my spirits lifted, I just want this day to be over," Kyousei grumbled, throwing his pillow over his head and collapsing back onto his bed.  The light obediently retreated from his room and Kyousei closed his eyes, hopeful that he'd fall asleep swiftly and awaken to a beautiful December the 26th, when hopefully everyone had spent their festive energy.
Instead, his eyelids flew open to another glint of gold light.  He sat up groggily, having only dozed for about an hour.  "Listen, ghost-whoever, I don't-"  His words caught in his throat when he put his glasses on and saw the ghost that was perched daintily on the foot of his bed.  Her light brown hair was done up in a high ponytail and she had on an old-timey schoolgirl dress as she had in the old days, ones her parents always insisted she wear.  She couldn't have been older than fifteen; around the age she had died at.
"Evangeline," he murmured in disbelief, his eyes widening.  "Is it really-"
"No," she interrupted with a forced bright tone.  "I'm just here for a few minutes, to take you back to the past and remind you how Christmas used to be like for you."
He drew his lips thin.  "I remember well enough," he said darkly.  "I don't need… I don't want to go back, Evangeline," he whispered, almost desperately.  She, however, stood, walked over to him, and took his hand.  He felt the oddest sensation of lifting, his whole body feeling warm as if he were sitting directly in the sun.  When it was over he turned behind him and saw himself, sleeping not-so-peacefully with his glasses still on his nightstand.  Before this image could sink in, he left that odd lifting sensation and watched his body, bed, and floor drop away from beneath him.
Once they had passed through the ceiling as easily as if it were air, Kyousei found himself floating dizzyingly in a bright winter morning over a painfully familiar yard.  "Oh God," Kyousei stammered, pulling his hand from Evangeline's.  "I'm not.  Going over there."
Patiently, Evangeline grabbed hold of his hand with both of hers and pulled him forward.  The street he'd "grown up" on passed by underneath him as they zoomed in towards the abhorred mansion, phasing through the wall as they had the ceiling.  Kyousei instantly recognized the room as Evangeline's playroom, newly opened boxes and the scarred remnants of wrapping paper scattered every which way.  Seated in the middle of all this was a slightly younger Evangeline, pink, fluffy nightgown hanging off her petite body, running a train down a length of wooden track to a station manned by a younger Koushou.  And, kneeling beside him, was a young Kyousei, a childishly innocent smile adorning his rounded face, yet still unable to mask the grim, sunken look in his eyes.  It didn't help that these eyes kept darting to the double doors in constant apprehension, certain her parents would walk in, demanding more chores of them and hurting them again.
"Koushou, my tire's flat!" the younger Evangeline announced urgently, scuttling along to keep up with the train as she heaved it down the track.  The ghostly equivalence of Evangeline chuckled affectionately beside Kyousei.
"Oh no!" Koushou yelped with equal amount of exigency.  "You gotta get it to the shop quick!"
"Yeah, we gotta get these presents to Santa's workshop fast so he can deliver them!" Kyousei declared, his gaze darting wearily to the doors as he spoke.
"At this age I still believed in Santa," the older Evangeline reflected.  "I knew you two didn't, but you played along for my sake.  I'm grateful for that, Kyousei."
Kyousei suddenly felt actual tears pushing on the corners of his eyes.  He rubbed them away furiously, glaring at the floor in defiance.  From the corner of his eye he could see the children all jump up.  The unmistakable click of high heels was headed towards the playroom.  Kyousei and Koushou had tried to busy themselves by picking up the wrapping paper, but it couldn't fool the misses as she crashed through the doors.
"Evangeline!" she yelled sharply.  "You aren't playing with these… boys, are you?"  It was a rhetorical question, considering they weren't allowed in the playroom at all, and therefore wouldn't be cleaning it in the first place.
"No mother," Evangeline replied under her breath, but the damage was done.  The misses clattered over to the two boys, arms laden with florescent giftwrap.  They dropped it in order to free their hands and thus protect their heads, but her fist came down on them before they could construct a proper shield.
"How many times must I tell you two NOT to talk to my daughter?!" she screeched, her hand slapping them upside their heads harshly.   "Are you both idiots?  It's no wonder no one wanted to take care of you!  You're lucky I put up with your constant disobedience or you'd be out in the snow right now!"
The older Evangeline obstructed her view as her late mother continued on, dragging the twins out by their wrists to set them to more labor.  "Charming woman," Evangeline commented hoarsely, moving to kneel by her crying younger self.  Her hands hovered over the younger girl's shoulders, never truly touching.
"What's the point of bringing me here, Evangeline?" Kyousei asked, his voice suspiciously raw.  "I… didn't have to see that.  To be honest, the nightmares were just ending."
She looked up at him sadly.  "I know what you've become now," she said sternly, and for one terrible, fearful moment, Kyousei could see and hear her mother in the disapproving state Evangeline was in.  "You push people away.  You won't let anyone in.  You won't let anyone help, even your own brother."  She paused to look wearily at the double doors, one still ajar.  "He went through the same as you did, but he did something you couldn't – he took it all and got stronger."
"Stronger?" Kyousei echoed snidely.  The tone surprised Evangeline; it was a tone he'd never taken with her before.  He looked away from her hurt eyes.  "He's… he's weak.  He lets others' emotions get to him."
"That's not weakness, Kyou," she snapped gently, her brow furrowing.  Kyousei flinched at the pet name.  "He can commiserate.  He accepted his feelings once this all was said and done, and he took it, turned it around, and is happy.  Are you happy?"  She didn't pause long enough for him to answer.  "No.  I can tell you're horribly miserable."
"But I'm happy being miserable," he retorted numbly, looking away still.  "I…"
"You won't accept this," she accused plainly.  "You repressed this all, and because of it it's weighing you down.  You forgot all this, and you forgot me-"
"I never forgot you!" Kyousei interjected, his shoulders tensing, fists clenched.
"-and you forgot how to love," she finished primly.  Kyousei bristled before her but made no move to refute her.  "You can't love anyone as you once loved me and Koushou.  You push everyone aside because you're afraid that if you open up to someone, you'll feel everything you've bottled up all these years come at you all at once.  You're too weak to face it all again, so you just plan to keep it all repressed."  Again, Kyousei remained silent, glowering helplessly at her.  Little Evangeline had since stood up and departed from the room, off to sulk in her bed most likely.  Evangeline's ghost stood resolutely, intimidating even despite the height difference.  Perhaps it was how much of her mother Kyousei was seeing in her.
"Look at your brother.  You just brushed him aside earlier this night, when all he wanted was to give you a gift."
"In observation of a pointless holiday, and it probably was a crappy gift anyway," Kyousei shot back icily.
"But if you'd let yourself go a little, it wouldn't be a pointless holiday, and maybe it wouldn't be a crappy gift, and maybe you'd be happy every now and again."  She unknowingly put her hands high on her hips in the same fashion her mother always did.  "Your friend Saori."
"What about her?" Kyousei asked impatiently, pacing around the old play room littered with tin soldiers and Barbie dolls.
"She loved you, truly, and you rejected her because you didn't want to open your heart."  She arched an eyebrow.
Kyousei made a batting-away gesture with his hands.  "But she found Beck, and she's infinitely happier with him then she would've been with me."
"You entertained the thought of dating her, then?" Evangeline asked simply.  "But you came to the worst possible scenario and, like all other good things in your life, you just let it die.  Why can't you just assume that good things can happen to you?"
"Because they never have!" Kyousei exploded, stamping his foot hard against the floor.  The resulting sound was silence, as Kyousei wasn't really there.
Evangeline's heart-shaped face softened to a look of pity that Kyousei had loved as a child, but now felt further enraged by.  "Oh, Kyousei.  They have, you just don't see it.  But… that's not my department…"  She began to fade out of view, the room around him darkening.
Kyousei realized what was going on with wide-eyed panic, willing his feet to run him towards her.  This only seemed to draw farther away from her, so he outstretched his hand towards her.  "Evangeline, don't leave me!" he cried out.  "Not again!  Please, Evangeline!"
Then the world blinked out of existence.

Kyousei shot up in bed, cold sweat clutching his undershirt to his body.  The room was still dark, the shadows of snowflakes drifting down past his window.  Kyousei raised one hand to his head only to find it shaking.  He clenched his fist and angrily pounded it against the mattress.
"Watch it, that is school property, young man," came a chipper voice.  Kyousei's mood soured even more when he saw Bekkah perched happily on his desk, legs crossed over his homework.  Of course, she wasn't disturbing the pieces of paper; she had the same unearthly glow about her that Saori and Evangeline had had.
"Don't tell me you're the second ghost?" Kyousei grumbled.  "I'm really starting to wish you all were really dead."  The comment stuck in his throat when he thought of Evangeline, and what he would give if at least she were alive.
"Fine, I won't," she replied with a snarky smile, pantomiming a zipping motion over her lips.  "I'm glad you're so direct, since we're kinda crunched on time as it is."
Kyousei looked at his digital watch but the screen was blank.  The analogue clock on his wall was stuck at midnight, the seconds hand not ticking.  Kyousei sighed angrily.  "Let's just get this over with so I can get back to bed," Kyousei growled.  Bekkah gave him two thumbs up.
"That's a nice look for you by the way," she commented as she trotted over to his bedside.  "You know how much I love men in tank tops."
"Can it, you're dating Fueto," Kyousei accused.  She smiled and shrugged, taking his hand.  Again there was that bizarre feeling of weightlessness as Kyousei's conscious was pulled from his living body, but thankfully this time they did not fly up through the ceiling, instead passed through the door out to the hallway.
Instead of the hallway, though, they were in the student lounge, where all his so-called friends were gathered together, scattered amongst the furniture arranged around the fireplace that was still crackling.  There were bits of garish wrapping paper littering the rug in the middle, the gift exchange having been finished.  On the couch directly across from the fire Beck sat comfortably with his arm around Saori's shoulders.  To their left, Fueko cradled a new case for her flute.  On the armchair by her, Koushou sat tidily, Kyousei's present still held in his hands.  Across from him on the far wall, Fueto sprawled over a couch, Bekkah tucked neatly between him and the couch bed, her head resting on his chest.
"Oh, aren't I just precious," the ghostly Bekkah gushed, clambering to sit on the couch back between Saori and Fueko.
"Now what?" Kyousei asked, unimpressed.  "They're just sitting around doing nothing."
"Not quite," Bekkah reprimanded.  "We're enjoying each other's company.  Something you can't seem to do."
"Kyousei didn't want his present, I assume?" Fueko asked hesitantly.
Koushou looked up sadly.  "No… normally he'll take it just to get me off his back, but today he just exploded."
"You mean he got angry at you?" Saori asked, her voice placid.
"There's a shock," Bekkah quipped.
"Yeah, well, it's true," Bekkah's ghost explained to Kyousei, whose arms were folded in annoyance.  "You're a total douche to Koushou all the time."
"No, I mean like, really angry," Koushou explicated, lacing his fingers over the present nervously.  "I haven't seen him so angry in a while.  I don't know what's gotten into him…"
"I guess he's just not a Christmas person," Saori offered.
"A regular ole scrooge," Beck put in.  "Everyone's gotta be happy on Christmas!  Anyone who ain't has got somethin' seriously wrong with 'em."
"Yeah, well, he's a real piece of work," Fueko sighed.  "He just doesn't seem to be happy over normal stuff."
"It's not really his fault," Koushou countered, fidgeting uncomfortably.  He seemed ready to say more, but swallowed it back.  The others made soft noises of agreement.
"But you went through the same stuff he did and you turned out alright," Fueto said, gesturing towards Koushou.  "He could do to take a page outta your book."
Koushou smiled regretfully.  "Well, just 'cause me and him are identical twins doesn't mean we're completely the same.  He just took things harder than I did and shut down."
"Figuratively," Bekkah suggested with a little smile.  A few others chuckled.
"Still…" Fueko ventured, putting one finger delicately on her chin, "I feel bad that he's having a crummy Christmas.  I guess I just feel a little guilty that we're out here together having a nice time, and he's in his room all alone."
"It's not like he's holing himself up to cry," Fueto countered.  "He likes being by himself.  It'd be a nicer gesture to just leave him alone."
Fueko made a small noise of defeat.   Kyousei was a little surprised at all this; he was never nice to them, why would they bother to consider his feelings?
"If something's eating Kyousei, he'll come around eventually," Fueko finally said to Koushou, putting one hand on his arm.  Koushou smiled at her gratefully, a weary look tingeing his features.  "Then maybe you could give him the gift."
"I suppose," Koushou muttered.  "I just figured… eventually he'd stop acting like this.  They way I get through the day is, when I wake up, I'm thankful that it's in my own bed in my own dorm, safe here at school, not back in that dreadful house."  He sighed, the eternal smile of his gone from his face.  "It hurts me to see him hurting."
"Yer a good brother fer it," Beck insisted.  Suddenly everyone was unnaturally still.  Even the dancing flames had halted in mid-motion.  Kyousei turned to the apparition of Bekkah, glaring expectantly at him.
"Notice anything?" she asked, looking up at him over her visor.
"That you guys are all idiots who reward cold indifference with acceptance and kindness," he spat, not meeting her gaze.
Bekkah crossed her arms huffily.  "I noticed two wonderful points, and I don't find myself to be very perceptive.  One," she said, jabbing her index finger to the ceiling, "we still care about you, even if you are an ass, because we can all relate to you on one plane or another.  We're just a scraggle of misfits that came together like a magnet because we can commiserate, and that transgressed into friendship.  Second," she said, cutting off whatever excuses he was ready to throw back at her, "you could learn a thing or two from Koushou.  What's your first thought when you get up in the morning?"
Kyousei glowered at the frozen tongues of fire nestled in the mantle.  He heard Bekkah tapping her foot on the floor.  "You're really brazen for some kind of omnipotent ghostly guide," he accused.
"I'm still just me, I'm just a fragment of myself right now," Bekkah said pedantically, rolling her eyes.  "Anyway, you're getting me off topic.  You don't have the right attitude in life, and that's why you think it's all pointless.  Koushou treats every day like a gift.  You treat everyday like a subjection to torture.  Are you being tortured, Kyousei?  Do you see Evangeline's mom here, ordering you around?"  She cast a hand accusingly at the scene before them.  "The worst shit you have to deal with is pop quizzes in History class.  You never stop and appreciate the fact that you aren't in a position that you have to be afraid of a beating or manual labor!  But instead of thinking like that, of being grateful of that, you act like everything in the world is pointless and devoid of all joy!"  Bekkah took a few deep, shuttering breaths, her face flushed in anger.
"I'm not gonna sell you the children-starving-in-Africa schpeal, but I can assure you, you're way better off now than you used to be.  You just refuse to accept it."  Bekkah and Kyousei stared each other down, Bekkah refusing to even blink.
"You're wasting your time, Bekkah," Kyousei muttered, his clenched fists trembling.  "Just go back to where ever you came from and leave me be."
"It seems I am wasting my time," she mumbled.  "Evangeline had a better chance at convincing you, but her time was limited.  As is mine," Bekkah added, looking down at her bare wrist as though at a wristwatch as she began to fade, just as Evangeline had.  The student lounge was fading to black around him.  "I only hope this next ghost has a little better chance than me…"  Then, as it had before, the world disappeared.

Kyousei did not bolt up this time.  He felt the weight return to his body, an indolent sensation in his limbs as though they had been asleep, but even still he kept his eyes squeezed shut, hoping this would deter the next ghost.
"Oh, please," came an exasperated voice.  "Get your lazy ass up."
Kyousei's eyes snapped open in surprise.  He hadn't known who to expect for this last ghost, but if he had to guess, he wouldn't have thought of her.
Emiko stood in a halo of ethereal light, hands on her hips irately.  She had on her old performing outfit, but she had aged slightly since she had transferred out of Blaire West.  Her head was tilted, eyes lidded slightly in impatience.  "C'mon.  I really don't want to be here."
"Feeling's mutual," Kyousei replied blandly.  "So, following the pattern, I assume I'm going into the future?"
Emiko nodded.  "At least you're not a total idiot," she allotted.  "Now c'mon, I wanna get back to sleep too."  She grabbed his wrist roughly, nails digging into his skin.  He didn't complain though as he was totally out of patience by then.  The now familiar sensation of floating ended and they stepped through a wall and into a bright, spacious living room of sorts.
Snow still drifted outside the window but Kyousei knew it was Christmas, as evident by the modest-sized Christmas tree with a decent amount of ornaments.  Presents were tucked underneath the low hanging boughs of the pine tree, many of them medium-sized boxes.  Kyousei, finding no one to observe, paced over to the tree and knelt down, flipping one tag over to read the dedication.  'Merry X-Mas David & Jessica' it read, with a heart at the corner before 'Aunt Fueko'.
"You're kidding me-" Kyousei began to say before two young children tore into the room.  A boy and a girl, most likely far into their second year, clad in formal attire  They both had curly brown hair, the boy's darker and wavier than that of whom Kyousei assumed to be the boy's sister.
"David!  Jessica!" came a man's voice.  The man who had spoken walked into the room after them, wearing a holiday sweater and slacks.  He had a Santa hat perched crookedly over his sandy hair.  Though he had aged considerably, Kyousei recognized the man as an adult Fueto.  "Don't get too riled up in your nice clothes."
"Davey started it!" Jessica whined, pointing a blunt finger at her brother.  "He pulled my hair again!"
"David, do NOT pull your sister's hair!" came a woman's voice, and an older version of Bekkah walked into the room, visor replaced by a stylishly thin set of glasses.  "Or else you have to sleep out in the cold, cold snow."  David crossed his arms stuffily, looking away from his sister.  "Say you're sorry," Bekkah instructed, kneeling next to her son.
The boy glowered at his sister.  "Sorry," he said shortly, then added under his breath, "Tattletale."
The doorbell rang, interrupting any further argument.  "You two behave please, okay?" Fueto asked, kissing them both on the tops of their heads.
"Okay," they chorused indifferently, scuttling over to the door behind their parents.
"Beck!" came Bekkah's delighted squeal.  She threw her arms around her half-brother, suspending herself off the ground.
"Hey, watch it!" he laughed.  When Kyousei got a good view of him, he realized how strikingly he resembled his father by the few chances he'd gotten to see the man, save for the hair color and generous stubble adorning his chin.  Behind him came Saori, now a gorgeous young woman with curly hair cropped at her jaw.  On her hip she held a baby, probably a year old.  His skin was a little lighter than Saori's, but his hair was a medium brown and had the beginnings of the hair part on his forehead and freckles dotting his cheeks that Beck had.  Kyousei felt the faintest pang of loss.
Behind them came Fueko, also grown, on the arm of some blonde man Kyousei could not identify.  They probably had never met.  Gouto was next, struggling with a large box that Fueto rushed over to help him relocate to the tree. The whole mass of people congregated in the entryway, hugging and kissing and babbling in a sickeningly Hallmark-esque scene.  The two kids attacked Beck's legs, squeaking "Uncle Beck!  Up, up, up!" to which he picked them up one at a time, throwing them high into the air much to Bekkah's discontent.
Emiko sighed, annoyed, reminding Kyousei that she was there at all.  "What's here that's gonna make me feel the warm, fuzzy feeling of Christmas?" he asked snidely.  She side-glanced at him and shrugged.  "You guys suck at being ghosts," Kyousei indicted.
The two unearthly spectators followed the group of people down an entryway to another part of the house, opening up into a snug dining room with folding chairs and armchairs dragged up to a small dining table to accommodate the guests.  A child's play table was set beside the dining table with rounded yellow chairs and plastic plates embellished with cartoon characters.
"Andy called and said he can't make it," Bekkah informed those assembled, which drew a groan from them.
"Maybe next year," Fueko said hopefully.  "I was looking forward to meeting him and Lizzy."
"Yeah, I hope you guys do get to meet them, they're lovely, and David and Jessica just love playing with Elaine."
The pointless prattle continued for what felt like forever as the silverware was placed, bowls and platters were brought out from the kitchen, and gifts of food and presents were put in their correct places.  The doorbell rang again, three sharp taps.  "No way," Kyousei muttered in disbelief.
Sure enough, Fueto opened the door to reveal Koushou, now looking much older and more confident in the way he held himself.  He had contacts on, or had at least disposed of his glasses in some way, and had much shorter hair, the same dark green save for the patch of lighter green bangs that were still there.  Bekkah danced over and pecked him on the cheek, ushering him to the dining room with the rest of the gang.
The man Fueko had arrived with cleared his throat.  "Anyone have really exciting news to share?" he asked loudly, looking expectantly at Fueko from the corner of his eye.  Her head originally propped up in her hands, she then sprang to life and raised her left hand, then held it out for everyone to see the ring.  An excited jabber broke out at the table mixed with applause.  Everyone reached or leaned over and offered their congratulations, all the while Fueko beaming radiantly.  Kyousei couldn't say his heart wasn't touched at least a prick by the utter excitement radiating from the scene, but he quashed it immediately.
"Dangit, I thought I was the only one with exciting news," Bekkah complained good-naturedly.
"What's your exciting news, dear?" Fueto asked.  "Bear in mind, managing not to burn the turkey doesn't count."  He chuckled as Bekkah smacked him in the shoulder.
"Well gee, now I don't think you deserve the exciting news, but you'll find out eventually so here," she said decidedly, producing a small, thin box from her coat pocket.  Fueto looked at it in confusion, popping the top off and setting it down on the table.  His eyes widened and he began to sputter.
"You're pregnant again?" he asked, grinning in bewilderment.  Another babble of enthusiasm rose around the table as another round of congratulations circulated.  Fueto got up and hugged Bekkah tightly, and would have swung her around if not for the table in the way.
"Sorry, I ain't got nothin' to add," Beck apologized, shrugging.  " 'sides that it's Eli's first Christmas.  How ye managin', trooper?" he asked, turning to look at his son who was seated with David and Jessica at the kid's table.  Eli had managed to shampoo mashed potatoes into his hair.
"Davey dared him to!" Jessica declared, earning her a menacing glare from David.  Everyone laughed as Saori did her best to wipe the potatoes from her son's head with a napkin.  Kyousei felt the corner of his lip actually tug up a little.  He'd never seen a meal quite like this one – was this standard for Christmas?
Once each dish had been passed all the way around the table and all plates were full, Fueto called for everyone to join hands.  They all bowed their heads and closed their eyes respectfully as he said grace, thanking God for the food and family assembled at their table that Christmas.  They broke apart, digging into their food and talking to each other merrily.  Koushou informed Fueko that he and some girl named Adrienne were doing quite well, Bekkah and Saori excitedly discussed baby names, Beck and Fueto talked about sports, specifically college football, Gouto and Fueko's fiancé chatted lightly about computers.
"So, might I ask where I am at this time?" Kyousei asked Emiko levelly.
She snapped back to reality, seeming to have been dozing lightly on her feet.  "Oh, right.  Sure, one second."  She pulled Kyousei along behind her, phasing through the wall and into a dark apartment.  Snow was falling heavily outside the large sliding glass door.  The room was large and furnished heavily, the only light coming from a large plasma screen TV mounted on the wall before the largest of the couches.  A man similar to the older Koushou in appearance was seated on said couch wielding a TV remote, clicking disinterestedly through the channels.  As he settled on each channel, he flipped the second it began with their well wishings of Christmas, playing of Christmas carols or sampling being Christmas-y… which, apparently, was every channel.
"Isn't there anything decent to watch?" the older Kyousei grumbled, head propped up in his free hand.  The younger Kyousei padded around the apartment languorously, observing its organization with slight distaste.  He obviously was going to have a lot of time on his hands by the immaculate state of things.  There were no picture frames, no wreaths, no strings of lights, no tree, and no presents to be seen.  It was a bleak contrast to the jolly atmosphere he had just left.
"Quite a future you got here," Emiko commented dryly.  Young Kyousei saw her sitting comfortably on the couch by his future self.  "The holiday where pretty much everyone is surrounded by family and friends, but you're here in the dark watching television.  Well," she sniffed, "not really WATCHING it, even."
"Then I guess that's it then?" he said with a casual shrug.  "Nothing changes for me."
"Not quite," Emiko said, observing the flipping channels as though she actually cared.  "This is one interpretation.  Your current one.  As I'm sure you've guessed, we aren't all-knowing figures of wisdom.  What we're showing you is the course of your life as it was and would be starting the exact moment Saori's apparition first visited you.  This," she said, gesturing to the disgruntled man beside her, "could easily be you if you keep things going the way they were.  But, if you were to heed all of our advice and change your ways a little bit, this could be what you saw before.  Sitting at a table with your friends and having a grand old time.  Not that it really matters to me, I didn't exactly sign up to be a ghostly ambassador and no one's expecting much from me out of this."
Kyousei stood silently, looking out the window at the city below and genuflecting.  Evangeline had claimed he'd forgotten how to love, or at least refused to.  She was right.  He didn't want to let anyone in, because other people only brought more hurt.  But… he didn't even let his friends in, and they still were concerned for him.  And the boundless love he felt in Fueto and Bekkah's dining room…  there wasn't a chance he could be in on that someday?  He hated to admit it, even to himself, but the prospect of sitting alone in an apartment seemed very unappealing compared to a festive dinner with friends.  Real, genuine friends.
"I'm tired," Kyousei finally said.  "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to go back."
"Whatever," Emiko sighed, and she began to fade.  The dim apartment became even dimmer, the lights fading away into blackness.

When Kyousei opened his eyes again knew with some degree of relief that he would not be greeted with any companion bathed in light.  He sat up, his limbs feeling heavy as they did when he returned to his body.  But could he expect to believe that was not all a dream?  The second he had awoken he was ready to pass it off as just such, but a slight fear gripped at his heart all the same.
On some impulse Kyousei got up and moved to his door, maybe to see if he'd pass through it.  His fingers touched the cold metal of the doorknob, though, and he opened the door.
"Kyousei!"  Kyousei looked into the identical eyes of his twin brother.  Koushou was still holding the present.  He observed this and held his hand out grudgingly.  Koushou looked confused.
"It's still Christmas, isn't it?" Kyousei asked inattentively.
Koushou smiled and eagerly laid the box in his brother's hand.  "Actually, it's technically the 26th now, but that doesn't matter."  Koushou stood expectantly before his brother, and Kyousei took this as a hint to open the gift.  It seemed to be an empty picture frame with a black rectangle in the center.  Kyousei remembered the lack of pictures in his future apartment.  Had he already begun to change things without meaning to?
"It's digital," Koushou informed him, pointing at a little button on the side.  Kyousei slid it to "on" with his thumb, and immediately the screen was alight with a faint blue glow.  A picture of Kyousei and Koushou, taken at the very beginning of their first year at Blaire West, appeared on the screen with a diamond-pattern transition.  Their individual yearbook photos appeared one before the other, followed by more of them seated with the gang at their lunch table.  There were shots of Saori, Bekkah, Fueto and Fueko, Emiko, even Sakyu, Ryuuza and Isabel.  Kyousei's eyes widened when, in a page-turn transition, there appeared a photo of Evangeline, sitting tall in a fluffy Victorian dress in an imitation old-style photograph, albeit in color.  The pixilated Evangeline did something he was certain she wasn't meant to – she turned her head towards Kyousei and smiled, waving slightly before a checkerboard pattern swept her away and replaced her with a picture of Kyousei and Koushou from the dance.
Kyousei was unsure what to say to his anxiously awaiting brother.  He looked at him over the picture frame that had begun to repeat pictures.  "Thank you," he stated simply.
Koushou, however, was stunned at even this much of a response.  "You're welcome, Kyousei," he replied, surprised but happy.  "Well… I'd better be getting to bed.  I have a feeling we're getting a pop quiz in History today."  Kyousei started when he recalled the ghostly Bekkah mentioning that earlier that night, in a dream or otherwise.  "Night, Kyousei!"
"Night, Koushou," he replied softly, staring down at the picture frame again, debating.  "Koushou."
"Yeah?"  His brother stopped, halfway down the hall, and turned to him.
Kyousei stared at him for a long moment, his jaw tensed.  "Merry Christmas," he finally managed, then turned back into his room.

As the evening wore on, the doorbell rang once again.  "That's probably Shisou, right?" Bekkah asked Saori.
"Most likely," Saori replied, joining Bekkah on her way to answer the door.  Sure enough, it was Shisou, bearing many gift bags stuffed liberally with crackling tissue paper.
"Merry Christmas, sis," she said, greeting Saori with a one armed hug, letting Bekkah take the bags to the Christmas tree.  "I brought all my gifts for everyone to save on shipping."  A chorus from the table assured her that pretty much everyone had done the same.  As Bekkah returned to shut the door, Shisou stopped her.  "I picked up a straggler along the way."
Hesitant footsteps approached the doorway, and Kyousei awkwardly let himself in.
"Kyousei!" Bekkah yelled, closing the distance between them quickly and gathering him in a tight hug.  "It's been so long!  How are you?"
"Been doing fine," he replied.  Others began to filter over from the dining room, headed by Koushou who went to greet his twin brother.  They all began chattering at once, smiling and patting him on the shoulder.  David even squeezed through the adults' legs and waddled over to stand before Kyousei, looking up in confusion at the stranger.  Then, Kyousei did something her rarely did.
He smiled.